February: At the MHRRC Winter Run (aka Super Bowl Run), I work as a traffic control volunteer. I wear a Green Bay Packers Cheesehead hat because:

I develop BPV (benign positional vertigo), where ear particles break free and float into the area of the ear associated with vertigo. This proves I have rocks in my head. I do exercises (cross-training) where I flop on a bed and turn my head to move the particles so they can be trapped in a “sack” inside the ear. (This is true.) Appropriately, it is similar to the childhood hand game where you try to get ball bearings in a clown’s eyes, nose and ears.

 March: My spouse Lynne and I receive a visit from our friends, Icelandic hiking (cross-training) tour guide Sverrir and his spouse Kristin. They spend lots of money at U.S. department stores. As a result, the U.S. economy rebounds—temporarily. Later in the year, England uses an antiterrorist law against Iceland’s banks, proving the English have a sense of humor. Or humour.

While working as a traffic control volunteer at the MHRRC Ed Erichson Run, I take photos of the runners while directing and dodging cars. Don’t try this at home, although why there would be traffic in your living room, I can’t explain.

April: I work as a traffic control volunteer at the Kingston Classic. I get church members to leave the services before the road is closed, and the members are very Christian about it. I then handle traffic in front of an apartment complex where, surprisingly, the tenants are very Christian about it.

Lynne and I run Sean’s Run in Chatham, NY. Before the race, students participate in a contest to see which team can fasten seat belts the fastest.

Lynne and I volunteer as Marathon Project mentors to train “at-risk kids” (at risk from obesity, drugs, gangs, pregnancy, Britney Spears, etc.) to run.

May: Lynne and I run the YMCA Bridge Run as Marathon Project mentors. At the start of the race, our friend Larry Knapp observes the MP kids, who are wearing yellow T-shirts, running downhill much too fast, and he comments to Lynne that there will be yellow wreckage left all over the course.

After months of planning, the MHRRC Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation 5K is a rousing success, with race director Lori Decker doubling the number of runners and raising $15000. Lynne is the race honoree. She runs the race wearing a pink wig and pink fairy wings; I run the race in a pink cowboy hat. Our friends Julie Johnson and Lainey Yang come up from NYC to run the race, and they pick up garbage after the race. This is how we treat guests.

No good deed goes unpunished: while running back to the Laurel Run finish line after working a water stop with MP kids, I see my shadow, step on uneven pavement, and have six months of pain.

Peace, Love, and Muscles (slow-twitch): Lynne runs, and I volunteer, at the Woodstock Races.

June: We run the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Rock on the River 5K. During the race, Lynne regrets wearing her pink wig and pink angel wings in the sweltering heat. However, she changes her mind after the race when a mother asks if Lynne could talk to her young daughter because the daughter thinks Lynne is a fairy. How cute is that!

At the Bridge Fever River Run 5K, Lynne runs with MP kids, and I direct traffic in front of the crewing building. Due to my traffic control directions, no runners end up in the Hudson River, although that would have been excellent cross-training.

 July: I take photos at the Mark Abrams Firecracker 5K. Two local elite runners miss the race start because they think the race is an hour later. They are such good runners that they could have made up the time and caught most runners.

 August:  At the Dennings Point 5K in Beacon, NY, Lynne runs, and I take photos. Once again no runners end up in the Hudson River.

We travel to Youngstown, OH for the Julie Johnson-Caleb Muhs wedding; we do not have to pick up the garbage.

September: Lynne runs the MHRRC Dutchess County Classic Half Marathon, and I work two traffic control positions, causing runners to experience déjà vu and to question if they have been running too hard.

 November: We watch the NYC marathon (because Lynne is masochistic) at Fifth Ave. and 105^th with Jen Wright-Tubbs and her family. Jen is the founder of the iRUNLIKEAGIRL clothing line.

RRCA Footnotes publishes my “Who Let the Mice Out?” article. See page 14 at the http://www.rrca.org/resources/footnotes/20081101footnotes.pdf web site.

We go by chartered bus to the Philadelphia Marathon as Marathon Project mentors. Lynne recovers enough from her periformis injury so she runs the half marathon. (Running makes you dumb…) I take photos at the finish line. We do not eat Philly cheese steaks. We do not lose anyone at the Runners Expo, and all 100 kids and mentors finish their respective races. On the drive back to Poughkeepsie, the bus stops at a rest stop on the Garden State Parkway where there is nothing Lynne and I can eat. Vegans must starve in New Jersey. 

Lynne and I drive to Youngstown, OH for Thanksgiving, passing the time on Interstate 80 looking for Obama voters in western Pennsylvania, without any luck. Instead of stuffed turkey, Lynne makes stuffed pumpkin. It is not a jack-o-lantern pumpkin, but a “cheese” pumpkin; this confuses me, since I know we are not eating dairy.